Rip Currents: How to Spot Them and What to Do If Caught

A rip current is a narrow, strong channel of water flowing away from the beach, usually out through a gap in the breaking waves. If one catches you, stay calm, don’t try to swim straight back against it, and either swim parallel to the shore to get out of it or float and signal for help. If you’re surfing, keep hold of your board; it’s your flotation. In any emergency, alert lifeguards or call your local emergency number.

What is a rip current?

When waves break, they push water toward the beach. That water has to flow back out to sea somehow, and it tends to funnel through the path of least resistance: a deeper channel in a sandbar, a gap beside a jetty or pier, or along rocks and headlands. That concentrated seaward flow is a rip current.

A few key facts:

• Rips pull you out, not under. They move you away from shore along the surface. They don’t drag you underwater.
• They can be fast. Rips can flow faster than a strong swimmer can swim, which is why fighting them is exhausting.
• They are often narrow. Many rips are only a few tens of meters (around 30-100 ft) wide, so a short swim sideways can take you out of the flow.
• They change. Rips can shift, appear or strengthen with changes in swell, tide and sandbars. A beach that was calm last week may have a rip today. Our guide on how tides affect surf explains why the same beach can behave so differently through the day.

Rips are present at many surf beaches, including on days with small waves, and they are not the same as an undertow or a “rip tide.”

How to spot a rip current

Rips can be hard to see, even for experienced beachgoers, and sometimes they show none of the classic signs. Still, it’s worth taking a few minutes from a raised spot on the beach to look for:

1. A darker gap between breaking waves. Deeper water in the channel means waves break less there, so you see a calmer-looking, darker strip with whitewater on either side.
2. Foam, seaweed or debris moving seaward. Anything floating that steadily drifts out past the waves is a strong clue.
3. A choppy, rippled channel. The surface in the rip can look rougher or more broken up than the water around it.
4. Discolored or sandy water extending out past the surf line.
5. A break in the line of waves, where the pattern of incoming waves is interrupted.

The safest thing you can do is swim or surf at a lifeguarded beach, between the flags where they’re used, and ask the lifeguards where today’s rips are. They watch the water all day.

What to do if you’re caught in a rip

Lifeguard organizations give consistent advice. Remember it before you ever need it.

If you’re swimming

1. Stay calm. The rip won’t pull you under. Panic burns energy you need.
2. Don’t swim against it. Swimming straight toward the beach against the current is the classic mistake that leads to exhaustion.
3. Swim parallel to the shore. Swim sideways, along the beach, to get out of the narrow channel. Once you’re out of the pull, swim at an angle back toward shore, often with the help of breaking waves.
4. Or float. If you can’t swim out of it, or you’re tiring, float on your back or tread water and let the current carry you. Many rips weaken beyond the breaking waves, and some circulate back toward shore.
5. Signal for help. Face the beach, raise one arm, wave and shout. Lifeguards are trained to recognize this.
6. If you can stand, wade. In shallow water, don’t try to swim; wade out of the current sideways.

If you’re surfing

Your board is a large, buoyant flotation device, so:

• Keep hold of your board. Stay on it, or hold onto it, and don’t take your leash off.
• Paddle across the current, parallel to the beach, toward the breaking waves on either side. Then catch whitewater back to shore.
• Don’t wear yourself out paddling straight against the flow. Rest on the board if you need to.
• Signal for help by sitting up and waving an arm if you can’t make progress or you feel unwell.

How surfers use rips to paddle out

Confident surfers sometimes use a rip on purpose. Because the channel has deeper water and fewer breaking waves, and the current flows seaward, it can carry you out to the lineup with less effort than paddling through the whitewater. It’s also often the polite way to paddle out, away from people riding waves, as covered in our surf etiquette guide.

If you try this:

• Only do it at a spot you know, in conditions within your ability.
• Know your way back in: paddle out of the rip sideways and come in where waves are breaking.
• Keep hold of your board at all times.
• Beginners and swimmers without a board should stay well away from rips.

Choosing the right day matters too. Bigger swell generally means more water moving toward the beach and stronger rips. Learning how to read a surf forecast helps you spot days that are beyond you before you get there.

How to help someone caught in a rip

Well-meaning bystanders can get into serious trouble trying to rescue someone. Your goal is to get help to the person without becoming a second victim.

1. Get help immediately. Alert a lifeguard if there is one. If not, call your local emergency number (for example 911 in the US, 999 in the UK, or 112 across the EU and many other countries) and ask for the coast guard or marine rescue where available.
2. Throw something that floats. A rescue ring, bodyboard, cooler, or any buoyant object can keep them above water.
3. Shout instructions. Tell them to float and swim parallel to the beach.
4. Keep your eyes on them. Point at them so rescuers can find them quickly.
5. Don’t go in without flotation. Only enter the water if you are trained, confident, and have something buoyant to give them. A surfer on a board can sometimes help, but only if they’re experienced and the conditions are within their ability.

If you surf with Surfast, its Emergency SOS button (press and hold) alerts your emergency contacts and calls emergency services. Treat it as one more way to get help from the shore, not a replacement for lifeguards or common sense.

Rip current safety checklist

• Swim and surf at lifeguarded beaches, between the flags where used.
• Ask lifeguards where the rips are today.
• Watch the water before going in and look for darker gaps, seaward-moving foam and choppy channels.
• Never swim or surf alone, and tell someone where you’re going.
• If caught: stay calm, don’t fight it, swim parallel or float, and signal.
• Surfers: keep hold of your board.
• To help someone: call lifeguards or emergency services, throw flotation, and don’t become a second victim.

This guide is general safety information. Local conditions vary, so always follow lifeguard instructions and local beach signage.